First Jan 6 rioter to enter US Capitol gets more than 4 years in prison
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Michael Sparks was sentenced him to 53 months in prison and ordered to pay a US$2,000 (S$2,600) fine on Aug 27.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON - The first rioter to breach the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, was sentenced on Aug 27 to more than four years in prison, federal prosecutors announced.
In March, a federal jury found Michael Sparks, 47, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, guilty of felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding, civil disorder and several misdemeanour charges for being on the premises of the Capitol building on Jan 6.
On Aug 27, Judge Timothy Kelly of the US District Court in Washington sentenced him to 53 months in prison and ordered him to pay a US$2,000 (S$2,600) fine. Sparks will be on supervised release for three years after his prison term ends, prosecutors said.
Video footage presented in court showed Sparks entering the Capitol building at 2.13pm on Jan 6, 2021, through a window near a door leading into the Senate Wing that rioters had smashed with a police shield.
Sparks was among the initial group of rioters confronted by Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman who helped hold off the mob from reaching members of Congress.
The rioters chased Mr Goodman up a flight of stairs as they demanded to know where Congress was certifying the results of the election, prosecutors said.
In court, Sparks’ lawyer, Mr Scott Wendelsdorf, argued at sentencing that the focus on his client’s status as the first to enter the Capitol was misplaced and that what really mattered was “how long he was there and what he did while inside”.
Mr Wendelsdorf noted that Sparks never assaulted or threatened an officer and that he left the Capitol building 20 minutes after he entered.
Sparks’ forced entry, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo, had immediately set off “the forced interruption of the 2020 Electoral College vote count and threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election”.
The judge said on Aug 27 that it was undeniable that Sparks’ entry would have “an emboldening and encouraging effect on everyone who was at least in your vicinity,” according to The Associated Press.
Sparks is the latest to be sentenced of the more than 1,300 people the Justice Department has charged in connection with the Jan 6 Capitol riots. NYTIMES
